A look at Clam Bay

David Albers/Staff Beach-goers circulate around a volunteer digging effort to reestablish water flow to an eroded Clam Pass on Jan. 14. 2013, in Naples.

Naples Daily News

David Albers/Staff A little blue heron hunts the tidal water flowing through three culverts linking Clam Bay and Venetian Bay under Seagate Drive on March 8, 2013, in Naples. Despite erosion closing Clam Pass for months, the culvert maintained some tidal flow into Clam Bay.

David Albers/Staff A Tricolored Heron hunts the flats of Clam Bay on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff A spotted mangrove crab clings to the branch of a red mangrove in Clam Bay on Jan. 23, 2013, in Naples.

Photo Illustration by David Albers/Staff The sun sets over Outer Clam Bay in a composite panorama photograph from Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff A human footprint marks the flats of Clam Bay on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff A Tricolored Heron hunts the flats of Clam Bay on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff Black mangroves spread through pneumatophores along the brackish water of Clam Bay on Jan. 16, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff A message pointing to the beach scars the leaf of a sea grape plant along the public boardwalk in Clam Pass Park on Jan. 16, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff A pair of wakers pause to look out over Outer Clam Bay on the public boardwalk in Clam Pass Park on Jan. 16, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff Animal tracks imprint the morning dew along the public boardwalk in Clam Pass Park on Jan. 16, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff - Construction equipment sits near Clam Pass after being delivered for an upcoming emergency dredging project on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013, in Naples. Collier County Commissioner Georgia Hiller said the permitting process for the project was complete and work is expected to begin as early as Monday.

David Albers/Staff A dead juvenile Goliath grouper lays in the shallow water of the eroded Clam Pass on Jan. 22, 2013, in Naples. The protected fish species spawns and spends its juvenile stage of life in shallow mangrove shoreline, such as Clam Bay, before moving offshore.

David Albers/Staff Naples resident Cheryl St. Pierre uses a gardening tool to pick up a lifeless eel that was stranded near Clam Pass on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, in Naples. After placing the eel into the Gulf of Mexico, the creature swam away.

David Albers/Staff A hand-written message encourages people to take up a shovel in support of an effort to dig a trench through the eroded Clam Pass on Feb. 26, 2013, in Naples. As water flow was nearly eliminated in the pass, many area residents and tourists tried to fight the erosion by hand-digging a trench as an official dredging project was implemented.

David Albers/Staff Naples resident Ken Dawson shovels sand away from a makeshift pass at Clam Pass on Thursday, Jan. 10, 2013, in Naples. Volunteer residents and tourist have banded together to try and keep some tidal flow entering the bay after the pass closed up with sand erosion.

David Albers/Staff Clam Bay and Pass on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff Clam Bay and Pass on Wednesday, Jan. 16, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff - Water from the Gulf of Mexico erodes Clam Pass on Wednesday, Feb. 27, 2013, in Naples. A cold front and strong tides erased two months of effort by local citizens and visitors to dig a trench to maintain water flow in Clam Pass.

David Albers/Staff A beach-goer examines a volunteer-dug ditch at an eroded Clam Pass on Jan. 14, 2013, in Naples. Local citizens and tourists teamed up to dig the ditch in an attempt to establish more water flow into Clam Bay.

David Albers/Staff - A beach-goer examines construction equipment that was delivered near Clam Pass for an upcoming emergency dredging project on Thursday, Feb. 28, 2013, in Naples. Collier County Commissioner Georgia Hiller said the permitting process for the project was complete and work is expected to begin as early as Monday.

David Albers/Staff - Work crews with Kyle Construction and Earth Tech Enterprises begin an overnight shift as they near completion of a dredging project to restore water flow to Clam Pass on Friday, March 15, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff A tattered rope swing sits idle as sand is moved out to the beach during a dredging project to restore tidal water flow to Clam Pass on March 8, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff Naples residents Matt Berman and Kristen Weardon paddle board around a dredging project in Clam Pass on March 9, 2013, in Naples. Despite clearly marked barriers for the construction project, some visitors continued using the pass throughout the dredging project process.

David Albers/Staff - Marion Forte, of Naples, watches with other Pelican Bay residents as workers complete the final stretch of a dredging project to restore water flow to Clam Pass on Saturday, March 16, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff - Steve Greco, of Suffern, N.Y. aids kayakers Roya Hakami and Andrew Dorovenis, 13, of Toronto, to get through the incoming tide in Clam Pass on Saturday, March 16, 2013, in Naples.

David Albers/Staff - Laisha Alvarado, Leandro Alvarado and Justin Lopez examine mullet caught by Bonita Springs resident Nehemia Alvarado as the family spends a day at Clam Pass on Saturday, March 16, 2013, in Naples.